I’m finally back on my original winter trip schedule. I like the
campground, called Cypress Glen, for several reasons. The three campground complex
on Silver Lake is both on the Withlacoochee River and the 46 mile long paved
State Bike Trail, so it provides access to many outdoor activities.

See the map, I can bike the trail south for 10 miles to
Trilby or north for 14 miles and beyond to Floral City or West for 10 miles to
Brooksville on the Good Neighbor Trail.

I can also kayak south to Ridge Manor or north to Nobleton.

View from campsite to boat launch

Closer view from Campsite

When I got here I found out that the hurricane had knocked down a lot of trees at the small beach in front of my campsite where you can launch your boat. Here are some before & after pictures.

Big trees blocking the path

Crawl under fallen tree to launch

My first bike ride on Saturday was a 21 mile round trip ride to Trilby, a nice cool day on the trail, I didn’t see much tree damage although this part of the trail was closed for a few weeks after the storm.

I watched NFL football games on Sunday but on Monday I headed north to Floral City for a 31 mi round trip bike ride. I was looking for a tool to tighten the Schrader valve core on my RV tire that had loosened and was leaking.

Schrader Tool

A motorcycle shop had an old valve cap with prongs that worked just fine, but when I take my bike ride over to Brooksville on Friday I’ll look for this tool at Harbor Freight and buy some peppers at a Walmart.

Silver Lake

The weather warmed to the high 70’s on Tuesday so I decided to kayak upstream from my campsite on Silver Lake to see how far I could make it up the Little Withlacoochee River which is a tiny creek that flows into the main river. There was a lot of tree damage so I could only make it about ¾ mi upstream where it was blocked by a large tree. So I headed back and up the main river instead to Crooked River Campground, the 3rd camp in the Silver Lake complex. The short 5 mile paddle was enough for me.

I decided to stay in on Wednesday and make some home-made chicken soup with my leftover Sam’s Club rotisserie chicken. I added carrots, celery, onions, noodles and spices. 

The forecast was for rain and turning colder to the 30’s for a day. Then starting Friday it is supposed to get back in the high 70’s for a week. It turned out to be a heavy rain but it only lasted for about 30 minutes.

Someone asked me to show them where all the campgrounds in FL are that I’m staying at this year. The map on the left shows their location and below is the actual schedule and my planned locations.

Of course nothing ever goes as planned. I just got an e-mail from my next campground, Oscar Scherer, they said they are now open but my campsite might not be available on 12/21 and I should call them before heading down. I may have to stay at Silver Lake for another day or at another Lowes near Sarasota.

I saw a Gopher Tortoise along the trail. These guys really get big and live for 100 years. Every few days they dig huge dens that eventually become homes for all kind of animals and snakes.

It was windy on Saturday morning but I still decided to go kayaking. 

The water level has been slowly dropping about 10 CFS/day. It is now down to 475 cfs and it is no problem paddling in either direction since I have no easy way to set-up a shuttle so I could just paddle downstream. I see other campers with kayaks but I haven’t seen anybody else on the water.

The river is a little wider going downstream from camp and I usually see lots of birds, like these Ibis, and a few turtles but I didn’t see any gators.

Withlacoochee River Ibis

Very Wooded Campsite #72

 As I mentioned in my last blog this park was not scheduled
to reopen until the day after the first day of my two week reservation.

So I
needed to find a place to stay for one night. I drove to Bradenton, FL on
Friday afternoon and found another great spot to camp at a Lowes store after
doing my weekly grocery shopping. It was a level spot with good free Wi-Fi.

The
usual check-in time at FL State Parks is 3 PM, but since they have been closed
I figured I would try to check in at 10AM. No problem, the place was empty. I’m
not sure what is going on but even though 12 months ago the campground was fully
reserved, there are at least 10 empty sites here every night No one has stayed
more than 2 nights on the site next to me.  

Sarasota Bayfront Park

There are a few good reasons to choose this
campground. Most campers have bikes to ride the 30 mile long Legacy
Trail a wide asphalt trail that goes between Sarasota to south of Venice.

Venetian Waterway to Shamrock Park

This week I biked 100 miles on four rides; south
to Shamrock Park, North to Sarasota Bayfront Park, into the beautiful
neighborhoods of Venice and their beaches and along Casey Key, a barrier island,
which is near the campground. 

Nokomis Beach near Casey Key

I have never tried kayaking along South Creek
which flows by the campsites. The jungle between the sites and the creek is
almost impenetrable and the parks launch is across the creek which is too far
unless you drive. The creek just flows out to the inland waterway and is too
far from any access to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Here is where I rest after my bike rides

The weather has been great, starting out in the
60’s in the morning and reaching the mid-70’s by the time I finished my bike rides.

I checked into WP Franklin Corp of Engineers Campground on an island at a lock on the Caloosahatchee River by noon on Saturday.

Here is an aerial view, this is the 3rd time I got campsite #8.

The campground is northeast of Fort Myers in a quiet neighborhood.

For paddlers or fisherman there is a lot to do. You can fish from the dam area, launch a boat from the boat ramp upstream into fresh water or go downstream through the lock and fish in salt water.

For paddlers, about a mile down stream, you can paddle up the narrow Telegraph Creek about 3 miles , beyond that it is very narrow and often blocked by fallen trees. 

I expected to see hurricane damage this year but everything looked normal, except I saw no large alligators but many more smaller ones.

There were plenty of birds and a few turtles. 

Paddlers can also paddle about 1-1/2 mi upstream from our campground and head south up Hickey Creek, a wider and deeper creek, to a park with a landing and a picnic area and  pavilion. You can continue upstream another mile or so but it narrows and you will again be blocked by fallen trees.

For bicyclists you can bike around the nearby neigborhood streets which will require short rides down River Rd which has no bike lanes but light traffic. I try to wait for no traffic and sprint to the next street. It is not hard to get in a 8 to 10 mile trip. There is a regional park 2 miles down River Rd that has mountain bike trails. If you have a car you can drive 10 miles over to Babcock Ranch which has miles of paved bike trails through this newer growing planned community.

You can also get some pretty sunrise or sunset pictures from your campsite.

I am nearing the end of my
two week stay at the beautiful campground at Franklin Lock on the
Caloosahatchee River east of Fort Myers, FL. I got to paddle two more times on
sunny days; Once, down the big river a couple of miles but I headed back when it
started getting windy. 

And once upriver to Hickey’s Creek another small river that goes through a small park with a hiking trail that crosses over the river twice. It eventually narrows and is blocked by deadfall. This year I paddled up
the creek about 2-1/2 miles making it about a 8 mile round trip from the
campground.

Snow in the FL Panhandle

This week the big polar
vortex storm that brought below zero temperatures back home and record heavy
snow to the Florida panhandle, pushed all the way down to SW Florida bringing
rainy days and temperatures that never got to 60o. Cold and rainy is not
conducive to outdoor activities. 

I felt cooped up looking out my windows
watching it rain and listening to the howling wind. Tomorrow they are
predicting frost warnings north of here.

My plans are to leave here
Saturday and drive to Tampa Bay and hope to get a nice campsite at EG Simmons County
Park, they don’t take reservations so maybe the bad weather will cause some
campers to go home early. 

EG Simmons East Campground Site #79

The forecast is finally calling for an end to the cold
spell and promising temperatures back into the high 70’s later next week.

The forecast is finally calling for warm weather and my reservation at WPF ended on Saturday 1/25/25. The plan is to drive 100 miles north to Tampa Bay and see if I can get a campsite at EG Simmons County Park. They do not take reservations and I heard that since the hurricanes all of their sites may not be available because of power problems or trees that need to have branches removed. 

I needed to get propane and grocery shop before I got to the campground, which delayed my arrival until noon, but that is the checkout time anyway.

There were a few sites available and I got site #70 which is just down the line from the picture I posted in my last blog.

You can paddle here on their canoe trail within the park or
you can paddle out into Tampa Bay going north to Apollo Beach or south to Bahia
Beach as long as there are no storms or windy days. I’ll probably try all options
on sunny days to get some exercise.

You can take a 6 mile bike around the large park on the
paved roads.

There are lots of residential streets nearby to ride your
bike but there are no designated bike trails. I like to ride over to Bahia
Beach or Apollo Beach and bike through the upscale neighborhoods or shop at the
nearby grocery stores.

One place I like to ride is to the Manatee viewing area
about 8 miles away in Apollo Beach. There is a large power plant that discharges
warm water back into the bay. The Manatees love the warm water. If the bay
temperature goes below 70^o they head here by the hundreds. The bay, after
the cold spell, is only in the 50’s.

When I was getting ready to leave a big truck from the Manatee Hospital rolled up to return a small Manatee back into the water. I swear I saw Peggy trying to help walk the Manatee down to the bay, since the 14 volunteers were having a hard time carrying it.

Peggy at Julies Fish House

Sat 2/6 was my last night at EG Simmons Park on Tampa Bay. I had two weeks of great weather and no sand fleas. I’ve been here a dozen times in
January & early February and only ran into them one time. I think that’s why
this campground is not full all the time and much easier to get into, even in
peak season. They do not take reservations, so early birds usually can get a
site.

My next campground is Lithia Springs which is another Hillsborough County Park. It is very popular and almost always full, so you need to get on the waiting list by 8 AM if you hope to get a site.

So since I needed to do my bi-weekly grocery shopping I couldn’t get there early unless I overnighted nearby on Super Bowl Sunday. I
stayed at the same Valrico Lowes store when I was here in November. It’s quiet
and they have good wireless internet.

I left Monday at sunrise but found myself second in line when I got to the park. However that worked to my advantage. He chose the only
available site at 8am and I waited until some other sites would empty after the
weekend. I got site #45, which is the best large secluded campsite in the parks
as you can see from the pictures. It overlooks the Alafia River but is a little
steep getting to the water to launch my kayak.

I like this campground for a couple of reasons. A great friendly campground host Chris from IL, a scenic river with lots of wildlife to paddle
with no crowds and access to over 30 miles of winding bike trails through an
upscale housing development.

Click Picture for big map

Chris has always helped me out with a shuttle, to do any downriver trips since I don’t bring a car and it would be hard to use my
motorhome. The water level early in the season is usually good but since the
hurricanes they have had a drought and the river is only 100 CFS.

So on Wednesday I decided
to just put-in at my campsite and paddle down and back up the river to see if the
shallow areas are passable.

I paddled downstream to near Bell Shoals bridge without hitting any shallow shoals, but if I had set up a shuttle it would have been much easier to keep on going to the take-out at the Brandon Boat Dock. That would have been about a mile longer than doing an up & back. 

To get back upstream I had to paddle back up about 5 shallow rapids and found that one was too shallow to paddle up so I had to get out and line the kayak back to the top of the rapid. So next time I’m just going downstream.

But I’m glad I did not paddle downstream from Aldermans Ford. 

When I got back I met a paddler from Sandusky, OH that had just come down from there and it took him 4-1/2 hours. He had to carry his kayak around 4-5 trees that blocked the river.

Signing off from MoonPieTown

These are my plans for the next month